Thursday, October 10

Maybe I'm just uptight. Maybe I'm hypocritical, because I enjoy some pretty intense pranks (including this coffeeshop horror made to promote the Carrie remake). But I think tricking people into thinking their city has been destroyed by a meteor goes way too far. I guess LG makes their point about how realistic this "Ultra HD" TV is, but, uh, you know, making people believe their families and friends have been killed doesn't seem all that fun.

Watch Watch This First first, weekday mornings at 7 Central. Because the best way to start the day is to start it a few minutes later.

Tuesday, August 27

August 27, 1912 saw the first appearance of a new fictional hero: Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. “A crackerjack!” enthused the magazine. “Zowie! but things happen!” In honor of the ape-man’s 101st birthday this month, Jeopardy! know-it-all Ken Jennings swings in on his vine to debunk four longstanding misconceptions about the jungles of the world. Ungawa!

Jungle Myth #4: Gorillas Hate Samsonite Luggage.

One of the most iconic American commercials of the 1970s featured the mighty African gorilla, not in his jungle-y natural habitat but in a series of urban settings: a zoo cage, a hotel, an airport. The ape (or, in many of the later ads, the man in an ape suit) would batter a series of hard-sided suitcases. The luggage, of course, survived the assault without a scratch.

Thursday, January 10

Does your business have an ad on TV? Probably not because it’s way too expensive. And why is that? Because everyone wants to have a TV commercial because everyone watches TV so it’s the best place to put a commercial, right? Wrong! There are plenty of other things with great untapped potential as ad boards. And we here at the Sean Adams University of Business Development Management Leadership have compiled them into a convenient list:

Clouds: you know when people point to a cloud and say it looks like a dog or a turtle or something? That just goes to show you that clouds know shapes. So why not get an airplane and shape a cloud to be a pie chart showing why your customers are way more satisfied than your competitors’?

Monday, October 29

There are people whose livelihoods depend on crafting advertising that speaks to you, the average college-educated white male aged 18-35. So when it goes awry we like to present it here, in a little column called Badvertising, so we can all laugh and say, "No seriously. WTF?"

Friday, August 03

I don't mean to brag, but I'm a Marketing genius. Seriously. I've just had an idea that's going to change the face of advertising forever: I'm going to let you pay me to advertise in my Out of Office messages.

I get literally hundreds of emails a day. You could be responding to EACH of them! The possibilities are endless! Businesses, charities, even individuals can benefit from targeted advertising like this! For only $5 sent to my PayPal, here's how YOU can get your message SEEN!

Wednesday, February 01

Can I make a confession? I kind of hate Super Bowl commercials. They're a lot like the Super Bowl itself: bloated with hype and usually a letdown. Even the best of them are still, you know, commercials. But there's no denying that Super Bowl commercials are responsible for some of the most enduring (or enduringly awful) artifacts of their time. Can you name the 8 advertisers responsible for the famous and infamous Super Bowl ads seen below? And for the 2-point conversion, can you name the year each aired?

Answers can be found by clicking here. Please post your answers, or arguments, below! But know this: the Trivial Eye is presented for public amusement and no prizes are offered other than that familiar feeling of aggravation that so much of your mind is occupied by useless trivia.

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